China’s government doesn’t want anyone to know that international journalists are being detained by police, as two New York Times reporters were for 17 hours while writing a story on Tibetan New Year, and expelled from the region.

The Chinese authorities don’t want anyone to know that Tibetans are afraid to speak out for fear of imprisonment and torture, and that they’re unable to leave.

They don’t want anyone to realize that tourists are flocking to what is really a police state, described as “Disney meets Potemkin,” where cell phone service is turned off and interactions between foreigners and Tibetans are tightly restricted and closely watched.

China’s authorities, on a mission to tell the story of Tibet well, spread propaganda about economic growth in the region while preventing the world from seeing Tibet for themselves.

That`s why our community of compassion is calling for reciprocal access, so international delegations and citizens can have the same freedom to come and go in Tibet as China’s do in the US and around the world.

The Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, introduced in the U.S. Congress last year, would pressure China to do just that. Senator Marco Rubio put his support for the bill thusly:

The Chinese government’s oppression of Tibet includes keeping it off-limits to Americans, journalists and others who can shine a bright light on the human rights violations committed daily against the Tibetan people.